The Internet Public Library Debuts "Live @ IO" Online Exhibition Featuring the Music of Modern Detroit

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ANN ARBOR, MI. -- You have experienced the Motown Jazz scene and the Motown sound of Rock & Roll. Now you can experience the sights and sounds of the most up-to-date music scene that Detroit has to offer as the Internet Public Library (IPL) unveils the multiledia exhibit "Live @ IO" (http://www.ipl.org/div/io/).

Assembled by University of Michigan School of Information graduate student Matthew Martin, "Live @ IO" offers not only the music but the images and the words of the artists and the history of the labor of love from the creators of IO, a modern music venue in downtown Detroit. Martin, a photographer and musician himself, was able to bring the sights, sounds and people of IO together into a vision as unique as the venue itself.

"We are trying to create sense of community and a sense of kinship," says Rob Moon, co-creator/owner of IO. "Phase one is to get everyone in here and the next phase is get some overlap and some collaboration between the different kinds of genres." Carl Keith, IO's other creater/owner, agrees. "I want to create a culture and a scene." he says.

Martin chose to focus his exhibition on IO due to the different genres that are housed in this single venue. Everything from acoustic drum circles to computerized electronic beats can be witnessed at this single location, sometimes within a single night.

Visitors to the Website can easily hear the songs of the bands, view images of the performers, and read what they have to say about the music experience through interviews. This exhibit is a new type of documentary that exploits the robust nature of the Web to present images sound and text, and allows the user/viewer to decide how they would like to experience the media. The same information is displayed in several ways, allowing the user/viewer to navigate easily and to create their own path through the exhibit.

The Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/) is an educational initiative of the University of Michigan School of Information and is sponsored by Bell & Howell Information and Learning. Staffed by professional librarians with assistance from students and volunteer librarians from around the world, it has been visited by more than 7 million people from over 100 countries. The library maintains a collection of online ready reference works; responds to reference questions; creates web resources; evaluates and categorizes resources on the Internet; and provides a space for exhibits.